This loaf of bread reminded me of someone when I took it out of the bread maker yesterday.

It was the comb-over and the colour that did it. In all other respects it is far more wholesome, I’m pleased to say.

A number of “calling cards” around one of the chickens’ automatic feeders indicated that a hedgehog had been helping itself to the chooks’ food.

I solved the problem by putting pieces of wood under the treadle so the weight of the hedgehog would not depress it and open the feeder.

However, I was late home one night last week and found not one but two hedgehogs at the feeder, an adult and a little one.

In the photo you can see the pieces of wood which I put under the treadle, but the hedgehogs are waiting for me to go away before they depart. Perhaps the little one is too curious to roll up in a ball as the adult has done.

Four days on, and the hedgehogs are still befouling the feeder area. While the chooks are eating they often spill food and I guess the hedgehogs are attracted by that – as are sparrows. So a barricade is required at night time. A rubber doormat may do the trick, unless the hedgehogs can climb… Their feet are like hands and there are lots of hand holds here.